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Chevy Caprice PPV Sales Slide 54 Percent During First Half Of 2015

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Chevy’s Caprice Police Patrol Vehicle (PPV) isn’t selling so well. For the first six months of the year, the police-duty full-size sedan was responsible for 803 sales in the U.S., down 54 percent compared to the 1,732 units sold during the first six months of 2014.

Demand for the Caprice PPV peaked in June 2014 with 434 sales; in June 2015, only 159 units were sold. Alas, it doesn’t look like the Caprice will break the 2,000 sales mark for the calendar year as a whole year. To note, sales of the Caprice’s smaller, and enthusiast-focused brother, the Chevrolet SS Performance Sedan, are also down, but not as drastically.

Chevrolet SS Performance Sedan Results - First Half 2015

MODEL

JUN 15 / JUN 14

JUNE 15

JUNE 14

YTD 15 / YTD 14

YTD 15

YTD 14

CAPRICE

-63.36%

159

434

-53.64%

803

1,732

Though the Caprice is only available to American police forces rather than to regular car buyers, its sales downfall can be attributed to the gradual decline in popularity of the large sedan in police forces across the country. In fact, American police departments seem to be favoring crossovers and large SUVs for their task forces.

GM isn’t the only one seeing drops in police-duty sedan sales: cross-town rival Ford saw sales of its Police Interceptor Sedan slide, though not as much as those of the Caprice PPV. The Taurus-based Police Interceptor Sedan was down 5 percent to 5,136 units during the first six months of 2015, and down a more worry-some 31.1 percent to 756 units in June 2015. By contrast, sales of Ford’s Explorer-based Police Interceptor Utility were up 36 percent to 12,900 during the first six months of 2015.

But even with the increased popularity of crossovers for the men and women and blue, we hate to see Ford sell more than Chevy in the police sedan department. Perhaps it has something to do with the Taurus/Police Interceptor Sedan being available with features like all-wheel drive and two EcoBoost turbo-charged engines, neither of which is offered by the Caprice, which rides on GM’s rear-drive Zeta platform, essentially being a slightly-modified Holden Caprice from Australia, from where it is imported. At the least we know that GM can always add those features to the Chevy Impala to take on the Taurus head-on… but will it?

Sales Results - June 2015 - USA - Chevrolet

MODEL

JUN 2015 / JUN 2014

JUNE 2015

JUNE 2014

YTD 2015 / YTD 2014

YTD 2015

YTD 2014

CAMARO

+11.53%

8,611

7,721

-8.74%

42,593

46,672

CAPRICE

-63.36%

159

434

-53.64%

803

1,732

CAPTIVA SPORT

-99.90%

4

3,959

-99.82%

53

28,811

CITY EXPRESS

*

1,073

*

*

4,284

*

COLORADO

+12,758.82%

6,558

51

+56,852.05%

41,575

73

CORVETTE

+3.08%

2,807

2,723

+3.17%

18,307

17,744

CRUZE

-12.92%

22,647

26,008

-11.97%

127,938

145,338

EQUINOX

+0.06%

21,760

21,748

+20.57%

145,685

120,831

EXPRESS

-35.62%

5,238

8,136

-32.44%

26,697

39,514

IMPALA

-41.54%

8,406

14,378

-26.02%

58,071

78,499

MALIBU

-5.63%

15,228

16,137

-6.75%

96,520

103,505

SILVERADO

+18.45%

51,548

43,519

+14.60%

275,822

240,679

SONIC

-18.77%

7,894

9,718

-26.62%

36,976

50,390

SPARK

+4.02%

3,857

3,708

-12.96%

19,409

22,299

SS

+63.13%

354

217

-7.70%

1,534

1,662

SUBURBAN

-54.50%

2,996

6,584

-0.78%

23,386

23,571

TAHOE

-44.45%

6,192

11,147

-8.17%

42,091

45,838

TRAVERSE

-17.66%

8,721

10,592

+18.01%

61,430

52,053

TRAX

*

5,971

*

*

24,815

*

VOLT

-31.06%

1,225

1,777

-34.74%

5,622

8,615

CHEVROLET TOTAL

-3.88%

181,256

188,567

+2.50%

1,053,619

1,027,908

Sales Results - June 2015 - USA - GM Totals

BRAND

JUN 2015 / JUN 2014

JUNE 2015

JUNE 2014

YTD 2015 / YTD 2014

YTD 2015

YTD 2014

CHEVROLET TOTAL

-3.88%

181,256

188,567

+2.50%

1,053,619

1,027,908

CADILLAC TOTAL

-3.06%

13,515

13,941

-1.48%

80,899

82,117

BUICK TOTAL

-18.09%

17,531

21,403

-6.31%

106,314

113,472

GMC TOTAL

+8.04%

47,051

43,550

+13.92%

264,713

232,371

GM USA TOTAL

-3.03%

259,353

267,461

+3.41%

1,505,545

1,455,868

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12 Comments

Time for Chevrolet to offer AWD in its mainstream sedans. The parts already exist for Impala, if they’re afraid of impacting Cadillac XTS sales then the XTS needs to go away as part of taking Cadillac further up the food chain.

And an AWD Caprice with its innate LS-series goodness should ring up some sales in the time the platform has left.

Zeta never offered AWD, but it was theoretically capable. Like Sigma II, which is based on Zeta, it probably could have used Sigma I’s AWD system. The AWD system on Sigma II was virtually unchanged from Sigma I.

Since Zeta was based on Sigma itself, I can’t see it not bolting on up if Sigma II (itself based on Zeta) bolted up to the same AWD system.

I suspect AWD would have been optional on the Velite, filling the no-AWD-convertible product gap against Audi.

I had hoped Alpha would have born a Caprice for cops, but it’s not happening. That would have been amazing with Haldex AWD.

The increased value of the USD vis-a-vis the Australian dollar should make these vehicles a lot more competitive and profitable but delivery time might be an issue unless there is a field stock somewhere.

Yep. Caprice PPV was developed back when there was going to be a domestic Zeta plant for Impala (originally supposed to be on Zeta), alongside G8 and possibly Velite and Camaro, though the latter two may have stayed in Canada.

My local department owns a few Caprices and loves them, but most won’t buy because it’s not built here.

G8 was never intended for US production, though. The only US produced vehicle that came off Zeta was the Camaro, which even that had significant Australian development input. The Zeta-based Impala you mention would’ve been not much more than a rebadged Caprice (much like the nineties Impala SS was) sent to the US in CKD kits for assembly, but since that didn’t come to fruition, Pontiac started looking at the Commodore to be sold as the G8, albeit with a few minor cosmetic changes.

It’s always sad to see this sort of news in regards to an old school larger sedan. I can count on one hand the number of police CAPRICE models in a one year time frame around here and still have a few fingers left. True, many departments are moving toward the FORD EXPLORER police version so the market bears that out. I don’t like those and I’m not a cop. The wheelbase is short and I prefer sedan longer the better. The IMPALA will likely get some sort of police upgrade I think since the CAPRICE has days that are numbered.

The availability of AWD combined with the larger load carrying capacity of the Ford Police Interceptor Utility has earned it the vehicle of choice with very large purchasers, such as the California Highway Patrol. In fact, the load capacity was the number one feature that sold the CHP on the vehicle as I recall. Combined with the 365 HP rating and it is a very capable vehicle. As a former officer, and an Explorer owner, I was skeptical until I had the opportunity to drive one. They are impressive. Having driven Crown Vic’s, Caprices, Impalas and the Dodge Pursuit, I’m convinced the only reason many agencies do not opt for the Dodge is the poor fuel mileage with the V8 with equivalent power to the Ford. Same for the Caprice when fuel out here has to be taken into the equation.